Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I too extend a céad míle fáilte to the ambassador and wish him well on the Netherlands' national day.

Unfortunately, the situation in Ukraine is not improving. Approximately 30,000 Ukrainian refugees live among us now. I salute the community response throughout the country, which has been good at welcoming the Ukrainian people to Ireland. Some local authorities have been better than others. I know it is a work in progress and an evolving situation, but this needs to be a top priority. Some Departments are better than others. It needs to be a top priority and there needs to be a whole-of-government response. I single out the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, who set up a one-stop shop in his Department to deal with queries from people from Ukraine who wish to study in Ireland. Before the recess, I asked for a one-stop shop in each Department. I hope that other Departments will respond accordingly and open a one-stop shop to deal with queries from Ukrainians. It is important to acknowledge that the situation with drivers' licences has been resolved. It was resolved with a signature, which could have been done weeks ago, but it is better late than having further delays.

We are approaching the last term for thousands of leaving certificate students, including those who have disabilities or who are blind or visually impaired. In this day and age, not having digital leaving certificate papers is something of the Dark Ages. If the Department of Education provided digital leaving certificate papers, they would be fully accessible not just to people who are blind or visually impaired, but people who have print disabilities. Other countries are doing it. Why is the Department of Education always so conservative in the way it does business? A young man was on "Liveline" last week, expressing his shock that he is blind, doing an oral examination in Irish, and is expected to interpret pictures. In this day and age, do we not have the cop on to realise that somebody who is blind or visually impaired cannot interpret a picture, either in English or in Irish? We need to cop on and the Department of Education needs to cop on.